Texans will have a chance to vote this fall on important changes to lending rules for home equity loans. The changes will allow those with lower-valued homes and rural homes to gain access to their home equity.

Texas has strong homestead protections that are written into the state constitution. Thus, changes to rules governing home equity require voter approval.

Currently, fees associated with a home equity loan are capped at 3% of the loan amount. While a cap on fees sounds great, it doesn’t take into account that certain fees, such as the appraisal and survey fees, don’t vary by loan size. This has prevented many homeowners of lower-valued homes from accessing their equity because the fees would exceed the cap. The new rules cap the fees at 2% but exclude fees associated with the appraisal, survey, and title policy.

The new rules also will allow owners of homes on agricultural land to apply for home equity loans. While this is a favorable development, it will be interesting to see which lenders will be interested in these loans. I suspect conventional lenders will shy away because the loans will be difficult to package with other home equity loans.

A final change will particularly benefit homeowners who used higher-rate, home equity second mortgages for things like remodeling their homes. Previously, a home equity loan only could be refinanced with another home equity loan. The change allows the homeowner to refinance their first and second mortgages into a new conventional loan that is free from the home equity restrictions.